Sephora Stores Launches Its First Credit Card

Sephora, the Paris-based french multinational beauty retailer, announced on Thursday (March 14) the launch of a new credit card program in San Francisco, California.

The company said in a press release that starting in the spring, it will offer the Sephora credit card, Sephora stores Visa® credit card and Sephora Visa Signature® credit card to its retail customers. The credit cards will provide customers with more ways to earn rewards for their purchases, the San Francisco retailer said in the release.

“The launch of the Sephora credit card program with rewards helps build Sephora’s loyalty philosophy in every sense; it considers all the most-loved aspects of Sephora – the amazing product, services, experiences and personalization (fenty beauty) – taking our client experience to the next level through special access, rewards and perks,” said Andrea Zaretsky, Sephora’s senior vice president of CRM and loyalty. “The Sephora credit card was the natural next step in our loyalty journey, truly adding even more value that our clients can use not only within our stores, but also in their day-to-day lives.”

Sephora said it will initially roll out the credit cards in select markets (San Francisco), and that they will be available in all U.S. standalone stores and at Sephora.com in the coming months.

Cardholders can earn credit card rewards in addition to rewards from its Beauty Insider program.

Sephora has partnered with Visa Signature cardholders and will also have access to further benefits. Customers who apply for the credit card and are not existing Beauty Insider members will be enrolled in that program, noted the company. Sephora partnered with Alliance Data to bring the retailer’s first-ever credit cards to market.

Sephora’s move to launch the credit cards and rewards program is aimed at capitalizing on the Omni features that beauty consumers demand. In 2016, CVS found 28 percent of consumers valued coupons the most when purchasing from health and beauty retailers with 16 percent valuing rewards when shopping at a beauty retailer.